?33  .!(> 
Y  H  r 


REMARKS 


OP 


RICHARD  M.  YOUNG,  OF  ILLINOIS, 


O  N  T  H  E 


f 


BILL  TO  GRADUATE  AND  REDUCE  THE  PRICE 


OF  THE 


PUBLIC  LANDS. 


SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  JANUARY  8,  1839. 


WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED  BY  BLAIR  AND  RITES* 


1839* 


'  y:  •  ■  T  ■  * 

Tt  ■ 


o 


*  ..  1  "  !  ’I  •  -  •  •  •  *•?  *  t 

. •  •  -  .  •  ■:  -  .  * 


•  *  T  * 

v  ►  . 


■'-ri  a i?* a  iiTA'tf  r  ,?,r  - 

-  V  < 


V;  c 


r.  : .  *; 


-  ?  r  ?•-  n 


■  ''''''  .  •  , 


'  <* 


H25TOFUCAL  SURVEY 


-  -  •  . 


''  ‘  P  r 

*  *  . 


REMARKS. 


Mr.  YOUNG  of  Illinois,  said,  in  reply  to  Mr. 
Crittenden  of  Kentucky:  I  rise  not,  Mr.  Presi¬ 
dent,  for  any  purpose  of  crimination  or  recrimina¬ 
tion,  or  to  impugn  the  motives  of  any,  on  this  or 
the  other  side  of  the  Chamber,  much  less  inten¬ 
tionally  to  misrepresent  what  may  have  been  said 
by  honorable  Senators  here,  in  relation  to  this  all 
absorbing  subject,  of  the  public  lands,  of  which 
we  have  heard  so  much  at  the  past  and  present  ses¬ 
sion  of  Congress.  I  have  no  feelings  of  ill  will  to 
gratify — no  personal  dislikes  to  induce  an  unkind 
expression  towards  any  Senator  who  may  have  ta¬ 
ken  part  in  these  discussions;  but  I  desire,  as  a 
duty  I  owe  to  the  people  I  represent,  to  defend  them 
against  unjust  animadversion,  and  to  put  some 
things  right  in  relation  to  the  debate  of  the  last  and 
the  present  session,  that  they  may  know  and  judge 
for  themselves  who  has,  and  who  has  not  been  mis¬ 
represented  in  respect  to  these  debates,  and  the 
course  which  has  been  adopted  and  acted  upon  by 
honorable  Senators  here  in  opposition  to  the  lead¬ 
ing  measures,  which,  whether  well  or  ill  directed, 
have  from  time  to  time  been  brought  forward  to 
facilitate  the  settlement,  and  expedite  the  growth 
of  that  interesting  section  of  the  country  which 
stretches  along  the  immense  valley  of  the  West. 
Much  has  been  said,  Mr.  President,  in  the  progress 
of  the  debate  now  going  on,  relative  to  the  attitude 
assumed  by  the  able  Senator  from  Kentucky,  [Mr. 
Clay,]  in  reference  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  new 
State?,  who  have  settled  upon  the  public  lands;  and 
as  his  honorable  colleague  [Mr.  Crittenden]  has 
undertaken  his  defence  against  the  charge  of  hos¬ 
tility  to  the  West,  denies  that  there  is  proof  to  sus¬ 
tain  the  accusation,  and  says  that  his  colleague 
has  been  misrepresented  bytho.se  who  are  deter¬ 
mined  to  have  him  nolens  volens  an  enemy  to  the 
new  Stales,  1  will  attempt  to  show,  that  although 
language  may  have  been  attributed  to  him  which 
he  did  not  use,  some  of  which  I  have  myself  seen 
in  the  public  prints,  that  still  enough  and  more 
than  enough  remains  to  sustain  all  the  material 
allegations  that  have  been  urged  against  him. 

The  Senator  [Mr.  Crittenden]  asks,  why  it  is, 
that  his  colleague  [Mr.  Clay]  has,  alone  of  all  others, 
been  singled  out  as  the  object  of  vituperation  by 
the  friends  of  this  measure;  why  the  whole  foun¬ 
tain  of  bitter  wafers  has  been  poured  out  up¬ 
on  his  devoted  head;  and  why  it  is,  that  he  alone  is 
to  be  offered  up  as  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of 
western  interests,  for  having  done  what  he  con¬ 
ceived  to  be  his  duty  in  respect  to  the  greater  in¬ 
terests  of  the  whole  Union.  Sir,  if  the  Senator 
from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Clay]  stands  conspicuous  as 
the  object  of  attack  in  this  debate,  I  would  ask  his 
honorable  colleague,  [Mr.  Crittenden,]  who 
placed  him  in  that  condition?  Has  he  not,  above 
all  others,  at  all  times,  and  upon  all  occasions, 
when  the  subject  of  ihe  public  lands  has  been  the 
topic  of  discussion,  taken  the  lead  in  denouncing 
these  lawless  intrusions  upon  t he  public  domain,  as 
he  is  pleased  to  term  them?  Has  he  not,  in  fact, 
to  u-e  bis  own  express  on,  battled  it  for  days  to¬ 
gether,  “solittry,”  if  not  “alone,”  against  our  pre¬ 
emption  and  graduation  bills,  when  scarcely  a  man 


of  his  party  would  venture  to  the  rescue?  These 
things  considered, Mr.  President,  and  how  can  it  be 
matter  of  wonder  or  surprise  to  the  Senator  [Mr. 
Crittenden]  that  his  colleague  should  be  met  by 
the  Senators  from  the  new  States,  upon  the  ground 
he  himself  has  seen  fit  to  occupy,  so  far  in  advance 
of  his  asssciates,  as  to  have  left  them  almost  en¬ 
tirely  out  of  sight  behind  him?  Mr.  President,  du¬ 
ring  the  progress  of  the  debate  ©n  the  pre-emption 
bill,  at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  the  honorable 
Senator  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Clay]  indulged  in  ex¬ 
pressions  towards  the  settlers  of  the  new  Slates  who 
had  gone  upon  the  public  lands  for  the  purpose  of 
procuring  homes  for  themselves  and  families, 
which,  in  my  opinion,  they  did  not  deserve;  and  as 
they  were  repeated  on  mere  than  one  occasion  du¬ 
ring  the  course  of  that  protracted  debate  with  the 
utmost  deliberation,  I  took  note  of  some  of  them  at 
the  time  that  they  were  uttered,  in  the  precise  terms 
employed  by  the  speaker  as  I  understood  him;  and 
as  I  wish  to  recur  to  these  expressions,  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  showing  how  far,  in  this  respect,  the  hono¬ 
rable  Senator  [Mr.  Clay]  may  or  may  not  have 
been  misrepresented,  as  is  supposed  by  his  honora¬ 
ble  colleague,  [Mr.  Crittenden,]  I  will  refer  to 
them  as  I  took  them  down,  and  leave  the  Senate  to 
judge  whether  we  of  the  new  States,  or  the  honora¬ 
ble  Senator’s  colleague,  has  had  the  most  cause  to 
complain  of  misrepresentation.  The  honorable  Se¬ 
nator  [Mr.  Clay]  said,  when  discussing  the  merits 
of  the  pre-emption  bill,  and  of  those  who  were  to 
be  benefiited  by  its  provisions,  in  the  debate  of  the 
27th  of  January  last,  according  to  my  memoran- 
d  im,  that  he  knew  of  no  law  or  principle  of  pro¬ 
priety,  which  authorized  us  to  give  away  the  pub¬ 
lic  lands  as  a  bounty  to  the  poor;  as  a  bounty  for  a 
violation  of  the  law;  that  he  viewed  it  (the  pre¬ 
emption  bill)  as  a  license  to  a  set  of  lawless  intru¬ 
ders  to  go  upon  the  public  domain,  and  prevent  its 
sale  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  law;  that  he  looked 
upon  the  whole  system  of  pre-emptions  as  a  system 
of  boundless,  heartless,  scandalous,  fraudulent  spe¬ 
culation;  that  it  was  full  of  fraud,  abominable,  ex¬ 
ecrable  fraud;  a  system  that  tainted,  corrupt'd,  ar.d 
putrified  every  one  who  touched  it;  that  these  men 
(the  settlers  upon  the  public  lands)  might,  with 
equal  propriety,  seize  upon  our  forts  and  arsenals, 
our  ships  upon  the  ocean,  or  plunder  the  public 
money  in  the  Treasury,  and  appropriate  the  spoils 
among  them,  as  thus  to  seize  upon  the  public 
domain,  and  hold  it  against  the  just  demand  of  the 
Government.  Such,  Mr.  President,  are  some  of 
the  expressions  in  which  the  Senator  from  Ken¬ 
tucky  [Mr.  Clay]  indulged  at  the  late  session  of 
Congress  towards  the  settlers  of  the  West.  But  it 
is  said  that  he  has  been  misrepresented,  intentionally 
misrepresented;  and  that  language  has  been  attri¬ 
buted  to  him  on  the  occasion  referred  to  which  he 
never  uttered.  This,  sir,  to  some  extent,  may  be 
true.  I  have  seen  some  newspaper  reporis  of  that 
debate  which  contained  expressions  which  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  hear^  in  the  terms  supposed  to 
have  been  employed;  but  the  inferences  drawn 
were,  nevertheless,  in  most  instances,  correct  logi- 
I  cal  deductions  from  the  premises,  as  admitted  to 


4 


have  been  stated  in  the  debate.  As,  (or  example, 
the  Senator  [Mr.  Clay]  did  not  say  in  so  many 
words  that  the  settlers  upon  the  public  lands  were 
pirates ,  but  he  did  say  that  they  might,  with  equal 
propriety,  have  seized  upon  our  ships  upon  the 
ocean,  and  hold  them  against  the  lawful  right  of 
the  nation,  as  thus  to  seize  upon  the  public 
lands,  and  defeat,  by  unlawful  combinations, 
a  just  competition  at  the  public  sales  in 
the  manner  prescribed  by  law.  And  what  is 
this  but  a  charge  o  [piracy?  And  what  else  is  a 
man  who  commits  an  overt  act  of  piracy,  such 
as  the  Sentator  [Mr.  Clay]  has  described,  but  a  pi¬ 
rate?  He  did  not  say  that  they  were  robbers,  but 
he  characterized  them  as  robbers,  by  assimilating 
their  supposed  offences  to  a  seizure  of  the  public 
forts  and  arsenals — to  a  plundering  of  the  public 
Treasury;  and  what  is  this  but  robbery  or  larceny, 
according  to  the  circumstance  of  force  or  no  force, 
in  despoiling  the  Government  of  its  property? 
Mr.  President,  we  have  a  class  of  speculators  I 
could  mention,  who  are  well  known  in  the  new 
States,  who  are,  perhaps,  justly  obnoxious  to  the 
Senator’s  charge  of  piracy;  but  they  are  not  the  pre- 
emptioners,  or  the  squatters  on  the  public  lands, 
who  have  gone  there  without  injury  to  any  one,  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  homes  for  themselves 
and  children,  and  who  expect  to  pay  a  reasonable 
price  for  them  as  soon  as  they  are  brought  into  the 
market.  No,  sir,  it  is  an  antagonist  interest.  The 
land  pirates  1  speak  of  are  certain  gentlemen  who 
make  it  their  trade  to  go  about  the  country  seeking 
whom  they  may  devour — who  visit  this  city,  and 
the  other  cities  of  the  Union,  purchasing  up  ad¬ 
verse  claims  to  land  at  a  cheap  rate,  long  since 
abandoned  and  supposed  to  be  worthless  by  their 
holders — buying  up  old  musty  patents,  for  ten  or 
twenty  dollars  each,  to  lands  that  have  been  sold 
for  taxes  many  years  ago,  and  long  since  passed 
redemption;  ay,  dealing  in  all  sorts  of  claims, 
which  have  coler  enough  to  alarm  the  fears  of  the 
bona  fide  settler,  and  force  him,  howeverreluctantly, 
to  the  alternative  of  an  unjust  compromise,  or  that 
which  is  infinitely  worse,  a  course  of  ruinous  liti¬ 
gation.  Yes,  Mr.  President,  in  this  way  stripping 
the  honest  settler  of  his  hard  earnings,  and  expos¬ 
ing  him  anew  to  all  the  hardships  and  privations 
incident  to  the  life  of  a  squatter  when  he  first  en¬ 
ters  upon  the  wilderness,  and  scarcely  knows  to 
clay  on  what  he  is  to  subsist  to-morrow.  Sir,  so 
much  was  said  to  the  disparagement  of  the.^e  set¬ 
tlers  upon  the  public  lands,  that  the  honorable 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,  [Mr.  Webster,]  not 
now  in  his  place,  who  had  just  before  that  time 
returned  from  an  excursion  to  the  West — who  had 
seen  them  at  their  humble  homes,  and  partaken  of 
their  hospitality,  rude  though  it  may  have  been,  felt 
himself  constrained  to  stand  forward  in  their  de¬ 
fence.  He  did  defend  them;  and  in  the  ac¬ 
count  he  gave  of  them  here  in  his  place,  he  did 
them  ample  justice.  Sir,  I  will  say  no  more  on 
this  branch  of  the  subject,  except  to  add,  without 
intending  any  disparagement  by  the  comparison, 
that  so  far  as  intelligence,  industry  and  enterprise 
are  concerned,  that  the  people  of  Illinois  possess 
these  attributes  in  as  high  a  degree  as  the  people  of 
Kentucky,  or  any  of  the  old  States;  and  that  they 
would  be  as  far  from  knowingly  committing  an 


offence  against  the  laws  of  the  Union  as  the  Sena¬ 
tor’s  constituents,  or  the  constituents  of  any  other 
gentleman  upon  this  floor.  No,  sir:  they  never 
have  believed  that  in  going  upon  the  public  lands 
they  thereby  became  lawless  intruders,  and  despoil¬ 
ers  of  the  public  properly;  and  our  whole  course 
of  legislation,  in  reference  to  the  settlements  upon 
the  public  lands,  since  the  year  1813,  justifies  them 
in  this  position. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  quote  some  passages  from 
the  Senate  journal  of  the  last  session,  in  relation 
to  the  pre-emption  bill,  and  see  how  far  the  hono¬ 
rable  Senator’s  course  is  reconcileable  with  West¬ 
ern  interests,  in  proposing  and  voting  for  amend¬ 
ments  which  were  evidently  intended  to  embarrass 
the  progress  of  the  bill,  and  ultimately,  if  carried, 
to  defeat  its  passage.  There  is  something  more 
in  these  amendments,  Mr.  President,  than  mere 
opposition  to  a  measure  of  pre-emption,  such  as 
was  proposed  by  the  bill  of  the  last  session— some 
principles  involved  which  I  cannot  subscribe  to;  an 
import  and  tendency  on  their  face,  fraught  with 
much  mischief,  if  they  had  been  adopted.  Hence 
I  desire  to  speak  of  them,  and  expose,  if  I  can, 
their  deformities  to  the  Senate  and  the  people.  On 
the  27th  of  January,  1838,  the  Senate  resumed,  as 
m  Committee  of  the  Whole,  the  bill  to  grant  pre¬ 
emption  rights  to  settlers  rn  the  public  lands.  The 
honorable  Senator  from  Maryland  [Mr.  Merrick] 
proposed,  as  an  amendment  to  the  bill,  the  follow¬ 
ing  proviso:  “Provided,  That  the  right  of  pre-emp¬ 
tion  granted  by  this  act,  or  the  act  hereby  revived, 
shall  not  accrue  to  any  other  persons  than  those 
who  were,  on  the  1st  day  of  D  ecember,  1837,  citi¬ 
zens  of  the  United  States;  and  such  citizenship  shall 
in  all  cases  be  established  by  leeal  and  competent 
testimony,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  register  and 
receiver  of  the  land  district  in  which  the  lands  may 
lie,  prior  to  any  entry  thereof  by  virtue  of  the  pro¬ 
visions  of  this  act.” 

On  the  yeas  and  nays  being  demanded  by  the 
Senator  from  Missouti,  [Mr.  Benton,]  the  follow¬ 
ing  was  the  vote: 

“For  the  amendment,  Messrs.  Bayard,  Clay  of 
Kentucky,  Clayton,  Crittenden,  Knight,  Merrick, 
Prentiss,  Preston,  Rives,  Robbins,  Smith  of  India¬ 
na,  Southard,  Spence,  Tallmadge,  and  Tipton — 15. 
Against  it,  Messrs.  Allen,  Benton,  Brown,  Bu- 
c  anan,  Calhoun,  Clay  of  Alabama,  Cutbbert, 
Fulton,  Grundy,  Hubbard,  Kin<r,  Linn,  Lumpkin, 
Lyon,  Mouton,  Nicholas,  Niles,  Norvell,  Pierce, 
Roane,  Robinson,  Sevier,  Walker,  Webster, 
White,  William*,  Wright,  and  Young — 28.” 

llete,  Mr.  President,  was  a  proposition  to  limit 
the  benefits  of  the  bill  to  native  and  natural  zed 
citizens,  to  the  exclusion  of  those  who  were  fo¬ 
reigners  but  not  naturalize  l;an  attempt  at  a  limita¬ 
tion  in  our  land  sales  hitherto  unknown  under  the 
different  pre-emption  laws  parsed  for  the  benefit  of 
the  citizens  of  the  new  States,  which,  in  my  judg¬ 
ment,  was  both  invidious  and  unjust.  And  for  this 
the  Senator  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Clay]  voted.  Is 
this  not  hostility  to  the  West?  I,  sir,  will  never 
consent  to  this  distinction.  Foreigners,  Mr.  Presi¬ 
dent,  are  required,  by  the  constitution  and  laws  of 
Illinois,  to  work  on  the  public  highways,  to  perform 
militia  duty,  aad  to  pay  taxes  for  the  support  of 


5 


the  Government;  and  they  are  permitted  in  return, 
by  the  same  constitution  and  laws,  to  purchase, 
hold  and  enjoy  real  and  other  property,  and  after¬ 
wards  to  transmit  the  same  to  heirs  or  assignees,  by 
will  or  otherwise,  and,  after  six  months  residence, 
(having  become  inhabitants  of  the  State,)  to  vote 
at  all  elections;  and  this,  sir,  before  naturalization. 
The  discrimination  attempted,  so  far  at  least  as  Il¬ 
linois  is  concerned,  was  odious  and  unjust;  and 
being  unjust,  I,  as  an  Illinoian,  could  not  have 
done  otherwise  than  to  have  opposed  it  as  I  did. 
And,  sir,  it  met  with  a  signal  rebuke  in  the  finale , 
in  the  heavy  vote  that  was  cast  against  it. 

The  Senator  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Clay]  then 
proposed  himself  to  amend  the  bill,  by  adding  thereto 
the  following  section: 

“Sec.  2.  Jlndbe  it  further  enacted ,  That  all  settle¬ 
ments  upon  the  public  lands  subsequent  to  the  first 
day  of  December,  1837,  shall  be,  and  are  hereby 
strictly  prohibited;  and  the  President  shall  be,  and 
hereby  is  authorized  and  required  to  cause  all  per¬ 
sons  who  may  settle  on  the  public  lands,  subse¬ 
quent  to  the  day  aforesaid,  to  be  removed  there¬ 
from.” 

On  the  yeas  and  nays  being  ordered  on  the  de¬ 
mand  of  the  Senator  from  Kentucky,  [Mr  Clay,] 
the  following  was  the  vote:  For  the  Hon.  Senator’s 
amendment,  Messrs.  Bayard,  Calhoun,  Clay  of 
Kentucky,  Clayton,  Crittenden,  Davis,  Knight, 
Merrick,  Prentiss,  Preston,  Rives,  Roane,  Robbins, 
Ruggles,  Smith  of  Indiana,  Southard,  Spence, 
Tallmadge,  Tipton,  Webster,  and  White — 21. 
Against  it,  Messrs.  Allen,  Benton,  Brown,  Bu¬ 
chanan,  Clay  of  Alabama,  Cuthbert,  Fulton, 
Grundy,  Hubbard,  Linn,  Lumpkin,  Lyon,  Mou- 
ton,  Nicholas,  Niles,  Norvell,  Pierce,  Robinson, 
Sevier,  Walker,  Williams,  Wiight,  and  Young — 
23. 

Here,  sir,  was  a  distinct  proposition,  not  only 
strictly  prohibiting  all  settlements  upon  the  public 
lands  after  the  first  day  of  December,  1837,  but 
requiring  the  President  to  cause  such  persons  as 
might  g»  upon  them,  to  be  forthwith  removed,  by 
a  military  lorce,  I  presume,  if  necessary.  Is  this 
not  hostility  to  the  West?  Sir,  shall  it  be  said  to 
the  new  States,  now  nine  in  number,  in  this  great 
Confederacy  of  twenty-six  independent  sove¬ 
reignties,  that  the  lands  within  their  limits  shall  not 
be  settled,  until  the  pleasure  of  the  old  States,  how¬ 
ever  long  withheld;  and  that,  if  our  citizens 
should  chance  to  go  upon  them,  they  are  to 
be  seized  upon  and  removed  hy  the  strong  arm  of 
the  Federal  Government?  No,  sir,  I  deny  this 
right  of  making  the  public  domain,  as  it  is  called, 
subject  matter  of  revenue  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
settlement  of  the  States  in  which  it  may  be  situat¬ 
ed.  And  here,  sir,  permit  me  to  avail  myself  of 
the  authority  of  an  extract  from  the  able  and  con¬ 
clusive  speech,  delivered  before  the  General  As¬ 
sembly  ol  Virginia,  by  the  honorable  Senator,  [Mr. 
Clay  ]  on  opening  the  Kentucky  mission  on  the 
14th  ot  February,  1822,  in  a  case  in  point.  Tae 
extract  is  taken  from  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  and 
relates  to  a  difficulty  at  that  time  existing  between 
the  States  ol  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  growing  out 
ot  the  early  settlement*  in  Kentucky,  in  which 
many  of  the  citizens  of  the  latter  State  had,  either 
through  mis  ake  or  defect  of  title,  settled  upon  • 


lands,  which  afterwards,  cn  investigation,  turned  oat 
to  belong  to  citizens  of  Virginia,  and  from  which 
suits  had  been  instituted  in  many  instances  to  eject 
them.  In  relation  to  the  right  and  duty  of  a  State 
not  to  permit  large  tracts  of  land  to  lie  waste  and 
uncultivated  within  its  limits,  the  honorable  Sena¬ 
tor  [Mr.  Clay]  said,  that  “of  all  the  attributes  of 
sovereignty,  scarcely  any  can  be  deemed  more 
essential  than  that  of  adopting  a  policy  to  redeem 
a  wilderness  and  render  it  productive.  That  it  was 
not  merely  the  right  but  the  duty  of  a  State  to  ad¬ 
vance  its  own  prosperity  by  the  enactment  of 
wholesome  and  equitable  laws,  demanded  by  its 
peculiar  condition.”  Had  it  not  been  for  the  set¬ 
tlement  and  improvement  of  the  country,  he  con¬ 
tended  “that  the  lands  which  composed  the  rich 
virgin  earth  of  Kentucky  would  have  been  un¬ 
turned,  her  fields  unploughed,  the  theatre  of  a  yet 
doubtful  and  dreadful  war  waged  between  civi¬ 
lized  and  savage  man;  the  silence  of  her  luxuriant 
forests  disturbed  by  no  other  sound  than  the  horri¬ 
ble  war  whoop,  and|  the  shriek  of  innocent  females, 
and  the  cries  of  help  ess  children  expiring  under 
the  agonies  of  the  tamahawkand  thescalpingknife.” 

Such,  sir,  was  the  eloquent  appeal  of  the  honor¬ 
able  Senator  [Mr.  Cl  y]  in  behalf  of  the  suffering 
squatters  of  Kentucky  in  that  day  of  trial  and  tri¬ 
bulation  which,  in  the  course  of  unforeseen  events, 
had  come  upon  them.  I  wish,  Mr.  President,  that 
we  of  the  “far  West”  had  such  an  advocate  at  this 
time  upon  this  floor.  What  might  we  not  antici¬ 
pate  from  the  energy  and  eloquence  of  one  who 
could  ihus  enter  into  all  the  feelings,  the  sympa¬ 
thies,  the  privations,  and  the  sufferings  of  the  early 
adventurers  to  the  West? 

The  Senator  from  Maryland  [Mr.  Merrick]  has 
said  that,  in  his  judgment,  it  was  unwise  policy  in 
the  General  Government  to  bring  these  lands  into 
market  faster  than  they  could  be  disposed  of  and 
settled;  that  emigrants  ought  not  to  be  permitted 
to  run  over  large  tracts  of  unappropriated  land  in 
pursuit  of  lands  more  distant,  so  long  as  any  of 
that  already  offered,  or  any  considerable  portion  of 
it,  should  remain  the  property  of  the  Government. 
Sir,  this  is  making  this  great  question  one  solely  of 
revenue,  a  question  of  dollars  and  cents  to  the  old 
States,  regardless  of  the  rights  of  the  new.  Sup¬ 
pose,  Mr.  President,  the  policy  suggested  and  ad¬ 
vocated  by  the  honorable  Senator  from  Maryland 
[Mr.  Merr  ck]  had  been  adopted  at  the  early  set¬ 
tlement  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  where  now  would  be 
the  flourishing  States  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri, 
and  the  more  distant  Arkansas?  What,  sir,  would 
the  Delegates  from  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  in  the 
other  wing  of  this  Capitol,  say  to  such  a  system  of 
policy?  Ay,  sir,  what  would  the  people  who  sent 
them  here  say?  Territories,  Mr.  President,  whose 
population  and  improvement  have  advanced  with 
a  rapidity  altogether  beyond  the  most  extravagant 
computation,  and  which  will,  in  a  very  short  lime, 
if  suffered  to  pursue  untrammelled  the  high  road 
which  is  opening  up  before  them  to  wealth  and 
political  distinction,  have  a  just  right  to  demand 
admittance  imo  the  Union  upon  a  footing  in  all 
respect-1  equal  to  the  other  States  of  the  Confede¬ 
racy.  No,  sir,  it  is  not  merely  the  right ,  but  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  netc  States  to  see  that  such  a  system 
of  restrictive  policy  is  not  fastened  upon  them,  un- 


6 


tier  any  pretext,  by  the  old  Slates;  to  s?e  that  the 
settlement  and  improvement  of  the  lands  within  their 
limits  enter  into  the  consideration  of  adjustment, 
as  well  as  the  matter  of  revenue ,  whether  collected 
for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  the  Government,  or 
distribution  among  the  States,  as  proposed  by  the 
Senator  from  Kentucky.  Mr.  President,  the  rea¬ 
sons  why  the  people  of  the  West  object  to  the  pro¬ 
posed  plan  of  distribution,  so  far  as  I  know  them, 
are,  because  it  creates  an  invidious  distinction  be¬ 
tween  the  old  and  the  new  States;  they  are  un¬ 
willing  that  the  new  States  should  become  as 
so  many  plantations  to  the  old  States,  render¬ 
ing  an  annual  rent  or  other  periodical  return 
of  the  money  arising  from  the  sales  of  the  lands 
within  their  limits,  and  which  is  taken  from 
their  pockets  for  purposes  not  contemplated  in 
the  cessions  of  these  lands  to  the  General  Go¬ 
vernment;  and  lastly  for  the  stronger  and  more 
important  consideration,  that  they  do  not  desire  to 
see  a  separate  moneyed  interest  in  this  way,  cre¬ 
ated  for  the  benefit  of  the  old  States,  having  no 
public  lands  within  their  limits, which  must  inevita¬ 
bly  tend  to  excite  the  cupidity  of  their  citizens,  and 
make  thisgreat  question  as  to  the  proper  disposi¬ 
tion  of  the  public  domain,  a  question  purely  of 
revenue,  and  of  increased  prices,  for  the  purposes  of 
distribution,  so  long  as  an  acre  shall  remain  in  the 
market  unsold.  In  opposition  to  the  higher  inte¬ 
rest  of  the  new  States,  in  reference  to  the  settlement 
and  improvement  of  the  country,  by  making  dona¬ 
tions,  -when  proper,  in  aid  of  great  works  of  inter¬ 
nal  improvement;  such  as  the  improvement  of 
our  navigable  rivers;  the  construction  of  roads  and 
canals;  the  draining  of  swamp  lands,  so  as  to  ren¬ 
der  them  healthy  and  fit  for  settlement  and  cultiva¬ 
tion;  the  erection  of  colleges  and  other  institutions 
of  learning,  for  the  education  of  our  youth;  by  giv¬ 
ing  the  right  of  pre-emption  to  actual  settler*; 
by  reducing  the  price  from  time  to  time,  as  the 
best  lands  are  taken  up;  and  in  the  end,  and  in  a 
reasonable  time,  by  a  surrender  of  the  unsaleable 
lands  unconditionally  to  the  States  in  which  they 
lie. 

These,  Mr.  President,  are  some  of  the  reasons, 
apart  from  the  power  to  tax  these  lands,  which  in¬ 
duce  most  of  us  from  the  West  to  oppose  the  gil¬ 
ded  scheme  of  distributions  among  the  States,  which 
has  been  presented  to  the  Senate  under  such  an 
alluring  aspect,  that  scarcely  the  new  States  them¬ 
selves  could  resist  the  temptation.  In  my  judgment, 
sir,  it  is  far  better  for  the  new  Slates,  that  the 
avails  of  the  public  lands  should  come  imo  the 
common  fund,  and  be  applied  to  the  common  pur¬ 
poses  of  the  whole  Union;  and  if  we  mu*t  continue 
to  beg  for  favors  and  indulgences  to  our  citizens, 
let  us  rather  apply  to  Congress,  as  we  have  done, 
than  bo  thrown  upon  either  the  charity  or  liberali¬ 
ty  of  the  Legislatures  of  the  States. 

But,  sir,  I  have  one  more  matter  in  relation  to 
the  pre-emption  bill  of  the  la*t  session,  of  which  I 
intended  to  speak,  and  I  shall  be  done  with  that 
part  of  the  subject.  Towards  the  close  of  the  de¬ 
bate,  and  just  before  the  vote  upon  tho  engross¬ 
ment  for  the  third  and  last  reading  was  taken,  the 
honorable  Senator  from  Vermont,  [Mr.  Prentiss] 
proposed  the  following  amendment  by  way  of  ad¬ 
dition  to  the  bill: 


“Nor  shall  any  person  have  any  right,  or  be  en¬ 
titled  to  a  patent,  under,  or  by  virtue  of  this  act, 
without  paying,  in  addition  to  the  statute  minimum 
price,  at  least  one-half  of  the  real  value  of  the  land 
above  that  price,  not  including  improvements,  to 
be  ascertained  by  three  judicious  and  disinterested 
appraisers,  under  oath,  to  be  appointed  by  the  re¬ 
gister  of  the  land  ^office  in  the  district  where  the 
land  is  situated.” 

On  the  yeas  and  nays  being  demanded,  the  fol¬ 
lowing  was  the  vote  : 

For  the  the  amendment,  Messrs.  Clay  of  Ken¬ 
tucky,  Clayton,  Crittenden,  Davis,  Merrick,  Pic.i- 
tiss,  Preston,  Roane,  Southard,  and  Spence — 10. 
Against  it,  Messrs.  Allen,  Ben’on,  Brown,  Bucha¬ 
nan,  Clay  of  Alabama,  Cuthbert,  Fulton  Hubbard, 
King,  Linn,  Lumpkin,  Lyon,  Mouton,  Nicholas, 
Niles,  Norvell,  Pierce,  Robinson,  Sevier,  Smith  of 
Indiana,  Tipton,  Walker,  Webster,  White,  Wil¬ 
liams,  Wright,  and  Young — 27. 

Here,  Mr.  President,  was  a  direct  proposition  to 
compel  the  settler  to  pay  an  increased  price  over 
and  above  the  price  of  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  per 
acre,  as  the  price  of  his  pre-emption,  according  to 
a  value  to  be  assessed  at  the  time  of  entrv,  or  to 
submit  to  the  alternative  of  being  turned  away 
from  his  home,  for  the  benefit  of  some  fortunate 
speculator  who  might  be  willing  to  pay  an  increas¬ 
ed  price  for  his  improvement;  and  for  this  proposi¬ 
tion,  also,  the  honorable  Senator  from  Kentucky 
[Mr.  Clay]  voted.  Is  this  not  hostility  to  Western 
interests?  I  would  ask  the  honorable  Senator  from 
Kentucky,  [Mr.  Clay,]  and  the  honorable  Senator 
from  Vermont,  [Mr.  Prentiss,]  who  brought  it 
forward,  as  well  as  those  by  whom  r  was  advoca¬ 
ted,  if  these  lands  are  valuable,  who  made  them  sc? 
Were  they  thus  valuable  in  their  wild  uncultivated 
state,  or  have  they  been  made  so  by  the  labor  and 
enterprise  of  those  who  went  upon  them  and  incor¬ 
porated  their  labor  wi  h  the  soil?  And,  sir,  upon 
this  subject,  again  allow  me  to  recur  to  the  honora- 
b'e  Senator’s  [MtClay’s]  Richmond  speech,for  ar¬ 
guments  much  better,  and  conveyed  in  language 
far  more  eloquent  and  convincing,  than  any  at  my 
command.  The  honorable  Senator,  [Mr.  Clay.] 
when  speaking  of  the  difference  between  land  in  its 
i ci'd  anxbii nproved  state,  said:  “Land,  before  it  is 
improved,  may  be  compared  to  the  raw  material, 
with  its  improvements  to  a  fabricated  article.  A 
farm  with  all  its  field*,  its  houses,  orchards,  gar¬ 
dens,  lawns,  and  shrubberies,  no  more  resembles 
the  same  land  in  its  native  state,  before  these  vari¬ 
ous  improvements  are  put  upon  it,  than  a  piece  of 
Brussels  lace  do?s  the  flax  out  of  which  it  is 
wrought.  And  would  it  net  be  monstrous  to  say 
to  the  innocent  possessor  and  manufacturer  of  a  raw 
material,  that  he  should  surrender  the  article,  un- 
compensaied  for  his  labor  and  expense?” 

In  respfct  to  the  iule  v  h  ch  he  contended  should 
prevail  as  to  ihe  va'ue  of  ihe  land,  he  further  sa’d: 
“Not  to  go  into  other  codes,  what  is  the  provision 
made  by  the  laws  of  our  common  ancestors  in  the 
colony  of  Virginia,  when  ifsfiondition  bore  a  faint 
i  resemblance  to  that  of  Kentucky?”  Here  Mr. 

!  Ci  ay  queted  several  laws  of  ihe  colony  of  Virginia, 
passed  near  two  centuries  ago,  providing  that  the 
true  owner  should  compensate  the  senior  of  land. 
He  contended  that  they  were  more  unfavorable  to 


7 


the  true  owner  than  the  laws  of  Kentucky,  because 
the  first  of  them  compensated  even  the  squater; 
none  of  them  gave  rents;  and,  although  all  of  them 
secured  to  the  true  owner  the  election  to  take  the 
land  and  improvements,  upon  paying  ths  value  of 
seating ,  to  be  assessed  by  a  jury,  or  the  value  of  the 
land  without  the  improvements;  the  land  to  be 
valued  at  the  time  of  seating ,  not  that  of  assessment 

Here,  then,  Mr.  President,  we  have  a  practical 
illustration  of  the  true  rule  of  assessment,  furnishid 
by  the  experience  of  the  honorable  Senator  from 
Kentucky,  [Mr.  Clay,]  and  backed  by  the  high  au¬ 
thority  of  the  colonial  Jaws  of  Virginia,  from  whom 
we  derive  the  greater  part  of  this  vast  public  do¬ 
main,  some  of  v  hich  were  passed  near  two  centu¬ 
ries  ago.  And  yet  the  Senator  [Mr.  Clay]  votes 
for  the  proposition  to  compel  the  settlers  of  the  new 
States  to  pay  according  to  an  assessment  to  be  made 
at  the  time  of  the  entry,  and  not  according  to  the 
value  at  the  time  they  first  went  upon  the  land.  So 
much,  sir,  for  the  pre-emption  bill  of  the  last  ses¬ 
sion,  and  of  the  misrepresentation  of  the  honorable 
Senator’s  [Mr.  Clay’s]  course  in  regard  to  it,  and 
other  kindred  measures. 

I  come  now,  sir,  to  submit  a  few  remarks  in  re¬ 
ference  to  the  bill  under  discussion.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  provisions  of  the  bill  propose  to  unset¬ 
tle  our  whole  land  system.  What  does  it  propose, 
sir?  Simply  to  reduce  the  price  of  such  lands  as 
have  been  in  market  at  private  entry  for  five  years, 
and  remain  unsold,  to  one  dollar  per  acre;  and  such 
as  have  been  in  market  for  ten  years  and  upwards, 
under  the  like  circumstances,  to  seventy-five  cents 
per  acre;  and  the  operation  of  the  bill  limited  to  five 
years.  How  does  this  unsettle  the  land  system? 
Was  not  the  price  of  the  public  lands  redu¬ 
ced  from  two  dollars  to  one  dollar  and 
twenty-five  cents,  the  present  minimum  price 
of  the  Government  in  1820;  and  has  this  reduction 
tended  to  weaken  and  destroy  the  system?  Surely 
not.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  been  found,  upon  ex¬ 
perience,  beneficial,  in  a  high  degree,  to  all  the 
parties  concerned — both  the  Government  here,  and 
the  people  who  have  purchased  at  the  reduced 
price.  How,  then,  does  the  proposition  now  sub¬ 
mitted,  for  a  still  further  reduction,  differ  in  princi¬ 
ple  from  the  reduction  which  took  place  at  the  time 
that  I  have  mentioned?  Sir,  such  has  been  the  po¬ 
licy  of  all  the  States,  as  far  as  I  have  understood, 
having  waste  lands  within  their  limits,  and  such,  in 
my  opinion,  is  the  just  policy  of  the  General  Go¬ 
vernment  towards  the  new  States.  As,  for  exam¬ 
ple,  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  a  large  tract  of  land, 
known  as  the  “Gallatin  county  Saline  Reserve,'’ 
was  ceded  to  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  encourag¬ 
ing  the  manufacture  of  salt.  In  process  of  time 
many  of  the  works  were  abandoned  by  the  lessees 
of  the  State  as  unprofitable,  and  much  of  the  land 
became  unnecessary  for  the  purpose  of  the  grant. 
In  this  condition  of  things  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  applied  to  Congress  for  its  assent  to  the  sale 
of  a  large  portion  of  these  lands,  (50,000  acres,) 
and  consent  was  given  without  any  restriction  as 
to  the  price  for  which  they  should  be  sold.  Some 
of  them  were  good,  none  I  believe  first  rate,  but  by 
far  the  greater  proportion  was  of  inferior  quality. 
Well,  sir,  what  is  the  result?  It  was  in  the  first  in¬ 
stance,  1  believe,  offered  at  a  dollar  per  acre,  and 


a  part  of  it  went  off;  then  at  seventy -five  cents, 
when  the  next  best  portions  were  sold,  and  the  re¬ 
sidue  again  became  unsaleable;  and  now  by  the 
law  of  1833  the  price  is  reduced  to  fifty  cents  per 
acre,  and  still  a  considerable  part  remains  undis¬ 
posed  of,  and  must  await  another  reduction.  How 
is  it  in  Kentucky,  the  Senator’s  [Mr.  Critten¬ 
den’s]  own  State?  Some  years  ago,  Mr.  Presi¬ 
dent,  1  had  occasion  to  visit  that  part  of  Kentucky 
which  lies  south  of  the  Tennessee  river,  where  the 
State  at  that  time  owned  a  considerable  quantity  of 
the  unsettled  lands,  which  were  then  in  market,  as 
I  was  informed,  at  fitly  cents  per  acre,  and  that  in 
Commonwealth  paper,  which  was  depreciated  so 
as  only  to  be  worth  about  two  for  one;  making  the 
cash  value  of  the  land  but  twenty-five  cents  per 
acre;  and  to-day  I  was  informed  by  a  gentleman 
from  that  part  of  the  country  that  the  present  mini¬ 
mum  price  was  but  twelve  and  a  half  cents  per 
acre — reduced  in  a  few  years,  Mr.  President,  from 
fifty  cents  to  but  one-fourth  of  that  sum.  1  men¬ 
tion  these  cases  to  show,  sir,  what  the  policy  of  the 
States  has  been  in  respect  to  their  waste  lands  that 
have  been  some  time  in  market.  Sir,  it  is  their 
policy  to  sell  them  that  they  may  be  settled;  that 
they  may  be  taxed  to  support  the  Government;  and 
that  the  country  may  be  cultivate  J  and  improved; 
for,  in  propoiuon  to  private  wealth  is  the  wealth  of 
a  State,  and  its  condition  as  to  revenue  improved 
and  benefitted.  Of  all  the  attributes  of  sovereignty, 
Mr.  President,  none  is  so  essential  to  the  well-being 
of  a  State  as  the  taxing  power;  for,  without  mo¬ 
ney,  sir,  the  wheels  of  Government  must  stop;  the 
Government  itself  would  stop  and  come  to  an  end. 
Is  it  right,  therefore,  that  large  tracts  of  land  in  the 
new  States  should  be  either  kept  out  of  market  or 
held  up  at  prices  which  they  could  not  command 
in  a  reasonable  time,  purely  as  a  matter  of  reve¬ 
nue?  No,  sir,  it  is  the  right  of  the  new  Slates,  and 
the.  duty  of  the  old,  to  see  that  these  lands  are  set¬ 
tled,  to  see  that  no  impediment  is  thrown  in  the 
way  of  their  prosperity,  if  that  be  the  tendency,  un¬ 
der  any  pretext  whatever. 

Sir,  much  has  been  said  of  the  parental  care  of 
the  old  States  in  providing  and  maintaining  this 
excellent  land  system  for  the  benefit  of  the  new 
States,  and  of  the  immense  emigration  to  the  West, 
within  a  recent  period,  under  us  benign  influence. 
Sir,  I  have  nothing  to  object  to  the  system;  I  agree 
that  it  is  a  yery  good  one,  as  good  a  one,  perhaps, 
as  could  have  been  devised;  but  that  was  not  ail 
that  created  this  immense  rush  to  our  borders.  No, 
sir,  the  panics  have  done  much  within  a  few  years 
past  to  add  to  that  emigration.  What  was  the  pro¬ 
cess,  sit?  Why,  Mr.  President,  I  have  either  read 
it  in  the  newspapers,  or  have  been  informed  in 
some  other  way,  that  during  some  of  these  panics 
at  the  East  and  North,  thousands  of  laborers  have 
been  dismissed  from  employment  by  the  wealthy 
manufacturers  in  a  week,  sometimes  in  a  day — 
turned  out  of  house  and  home  to  beg  for  bread  for 
themselves  and  their  suffering  families.  Yes,  sir, 
hardy,  industrious  laborers,  who  were  in  the  habit 
of  working  day  by  day  for  their  bread,  in  this  way 
suddenly  made  beggars.  Well,  Mr.  President, 
they  must  do  something;  they  turn  their  eyes  to  the 
West;  the  next  you  hear  of  them  is  at  Buffalo, 
crowding  your  steamboats  to  overflowing,  and 


8 


bound  for  Detroit,  and  from  thence,  many  of  them 
to  Chicago,  in  Illinois.  Yes,  sir,  in  this  way  thou¬ 
sands  find  their  way  to  our  borders,  and  the  next 
thing  you  hear  of  your  manufacturer  of  the  East, 
he  is  an  independent  squatter  of  the  West,  com¬ 
fortably  settled  down  upon  the  public  lands,  and 
talking  about  pre-emptions. 

It  has  been  said,  Mr.  President,  that  the  quantity 
of  refuse  and  unsaleable  lands  in  the  new  States 
has  been  greatly  exaggerated.  It  may  be  so,  sir. 
I  will  only  speak  for  Illinois  whatl  know,  Mr.  Pre¬ 
sident,  from  long  experience  and  personal  observa¬ 
tion.  Many  of  the  lands  intended  to  be  embraced 
by  this  bill,  Mr.  President,  (I  admit  there  are  ex¬ 
ceptions,)  are  either  too  poor  and  unproductive  to 
be  desirable  for  cultivation,  or  are,  from  other 
causes,  unfit  for  present  use,  and  therefore  unsale¬ 
able  at  the  present  minimum  price  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  Such,  sir,  are  large  waste  tracts  of  prairie 
land,  remote  from  timber,  and  lands  that  are  sub¬ 
ject  to  occasional  inundations,  or  are  otherwise  too 
wet  for  successful  cultivation.  I  will  give  you  an 
instance,  sir.  One  of  my  colleagues  of  the  ether 
House,  [Gov.  Casey,]  told  me  this  morning  that  a 
case  had  been  brought  before  the  Illinois  Assembly, 
now  silting,  to  induce  action  here,  for  sectionizing 
a  township  of  land  on  the  Embarrass  river,  around 
which  the  exterior  township  lines  only  had  been 
run  by  the  Government  surveyor,  and  the  land  re¬ 
returned  as  subject  to  inundation,  and  consequent¬ 
ly  unfit  for  cultivation,  so  that  it  might  be  occupied, 
and  in  some  way  rendered  productive.  Now,  sir, 
will  any  man  say,  although  this  may  be  rich  bot¬ 
tom  land,  that  it  is  worth  the  price  for  which  the 
public  lands  are  ordinarily  sold?  Surely  net,  sir: 
for  although  it  may  be  reclaimed  to  a  considerable 
extent  for  a  variety  of  purposes,  still  money  and  la¬ 
bor  mnst  be  expended  to  render  it  thus  valuable 
for  any  purpose  whatever.  So  it  is  with  prairie 
lands  in  general  that  are  distant  from  timber.  If 
you  expect  to  sell  them,  you  must  reduce  the  price, 
s©  as  to  affoid  the  inducement  to  purchase  to  such 
as  are  not  able  to  buy  the  better  lands,  and  would 
be  willing  to  encounter  the  inconveniences  attend¬ 
ing  these  remote  situations  on  account  of  the  dif¬ 
ference  in  the  price.  And,  sir,  one  reduction  should 
follow  another  within  reasonable  periods  until  the 
whole  is  disposed  of. 

But  we  are  told,  Mr.  President,  that  we  have  had 
ample  donations  for  the  establishment  and  main¬ 
tenance  of  institutions  of  learning,  colleges,  semi¬ 
naries,  and  common  schools,  for  the  purpose  of 
constructing  roads  and  canals,  for  our  seats  of  Go¬ 
vernment,  and  many  other  purposes;  and  we  are 
emphatically  asked  what  we  have  given  in  return 
for  all  these  advantages.  I  will  answer,  Mr.  Pre¬ 
sident,  as  to  some  things,  that  Illinois,  at  least,  has 
given  in  return.  In  the  first  place  she  exempted 
from  taxation,  for  three  years,  several  millions  of 
acres  which  had  beeH  patented  as  bounties  to  the 
soldiers  of  the  late  war;  and  in  the  second  all  the 
lands  for  five  years,  amounting  to  many  [millions 
more  than  have  been  sold  since  th«  first  day  of 
January,  1819.  Our  tax  on  a  quarter  section  of 
laud,  in  Illinois,  Mr.  President,  is  two  dollars  and 


forty  cents  for  ordinary  purposes,  and  one  dollar 
and  twenty  cents  for  the  opening  and  repairing  of 
roads,  making  three  dollars  and  Sixty  cents  in  the 
whole,  or  each  160  acres  of  land.  Now,  sir,  let 
any  man  make  the  calculation,  and  he  will  find 
that  this  would  amount  to  no  inconsiderable  sum. 
But,  sir,  appeals  have  been  made  to  the  old  States, 
to  the  Senators  from  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania, 
here  in  their  places,  to  resist  the  monstrous  preten¬ 
sions  of  the  new  States,  that  “we  of  the  old  States 
are  required  to  submit  to.”  Sir,  I  trust  that  these 
appeals  will  not  have  the  effect  of  arraying  the  old 
Stales  against  us;  but  that  they  will  agree  with  us, 
that  it  is  the  right  of  the  new  Slates,  as  well  as  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  old,  to  see  that  these  lands  are  dis¬ 
posed  of,  and  settled  in  a  reasonable  time,  and  that 
n©  impediment  is  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  occu¬ 
pation  of  the  lands  within  our  limits,  and  the  culti¬ 
vation  and  improvemement,  by  our  hardy  and  en- 
terprizing  citizens,  of  the  whole  country,  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent,  upon  such  terms  as  shall  be  just, 
liberal,  and  equitable,  to  all  the  parties  concerned. 

Still,  Mr.  President,  I  am  willing  to  do  the  Sena¬ 
tor  from  Kentucky,  [Mr.  Clay]  the  justice  to  say, 
that  with  all  his  opposition  to  our  land  measures, 
and  harsh  expressions  towads  our  citizens,  to  say  the 
least  of  them,  that  he  has  rendered  important  ser¬ 
vices  to  the  West.  Yes,  sir,  he  has  for  many  years 
stood  forward  a  prominent  advocate  for  that  great 
Western  measure,  (the  Cumberland  road,)  in  which 
we  of  the  West*  are  so  much  interested,  and  I  give 
him  full  credit  for  it.  I  have  seen  the  monument 
on  this  side  of  Wheeling,  said  to  have  been  erected 
in  commemoration  of  these  services,  and  I  hope  it 
may  long  stand  there.  I,  at  least,  will  not  be  among 
those  to  pull  it  down.  I  only  regret,  sir,  that  some 
of  our  Southern  friends,  agreeing  with  us  on  most 
other  questions  of  national  policy,  cannot  find  it 
within  their  constitutional  competency  so  to  acton 
this  all  important  question  to  many  of  the  States, 
as  to  build  up  similar  monuments  to  their  memo¬ 
ry  and  their  fame,  that  should  endure  as  long  as 
this  “great  highway  of  the  ycest,”  which  was 
commenced  under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
continued  down  to  the  present  day,  under  the  succes¬ 
sive  administrations  of  Madison,  Monroe,  Adams, 
Jackson,  and  the  present  incumbent,  Mr.  Van  Bu- 
ren,  shall  stand  itself  as  a  monument,  in  the  estima¬ 
tion  of  the  admiring  beholder,  to  the  memory  of 
those  distinguished  personages  I  have  mentioned, 
and  all  those  who  shall  stand  firmly  by  it  to  the 
end,  in  the  day  of  its  trial  and  its  difficulty. 

These,  Mr.  President,  are  my  views  in  regard 
to  the  feelings  and  interests  of  the  people  I  repre¬ 
sent,  in  respect  to  this  important  measure  of  the 
reduction  of  the  price  of  the  public  lands.  And  as 
to  their  patriotism  under  all  circumstances,  whether 
we  shall  succeed  or  not,  I  will  only  add,  in  the 
language  of  a  worthy  predecessor,  who  once  occu¬ 
pied  this  seat,  [the  lamented  Kane,]  that  “if  that 
time  shall  ever  come,  which  God  forbid,  when  the 
sun  of  your  liberty  must  set,  it  will  set  in  the  West, 
unsullied  by  a  single  act  upon  your  herders  to  se¬ 
ver  this  great  and  happy  Confederacy.” 


